The USS Moctobi was commissioned on
07/25/1944. After 41.2 years this proud ship was decommissioned on
09/30/1985. She was finally stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on
01/28/1992.
I searched the net for several years
for the location of the Mighty Moctobi. Nobody, it seemed, could give me
any solid information. It was by luck that I eventually located the
Moctobi. I was browsing the
NAFTS website on 2/13/99
and came across a message from a Marine Engineering consultant. He said
that he had been onboard the Moctobi (and Quapaw) the week before. I
emailed a friend in Lodi, CA with the news. Greg Collins, an ex BM3 who
served on the ship after I did jumped in his car and drove about 60 miles
to the reported location of the ship. The two ships had been moved to Port
Richmond, CA and were awaiting transportation to Ontonagon, Michigan or
sale (I've heard) to whoever wanted the honor of owning a 57 year old
Ex-Navy Ocean Going Tug. To read Greg's great email back to me click
HERE.
The Navy was supposed to have
transferred the tug, along with five others, to the Northeast Wisconsin
Railroad Transportation Commission, an entity of three northeast Wisconsin
counties who would lease the vessels to the Escanaba & Lake Superior
Railroad Co. The ship(s) would operate out of the Ontonagon, Michigan.
area. Still tied up in Port Richmond, it is reported that the funds do not
exist at this time to move the Moctobi (and the Quapaw) to Michigan. As a
result, the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad Co. has decided to sell the tugs. The Moctobi and Quapaw
are both for sale. The price has varied over the past couple of years.
